I spent the first hour in setup screens, sorting contracts and basic tactics, and nearly closed it before anything started. The menus just sit there while you pick through details that don't feel urgent yet.

A match finally pulled me back in when I swapped a midfielder at the half after checking the opposition's passing patterns. That single choice changed how the second half played out, even if the rest of the game stayed quiet around it.

Most sessions end up with long stretches of reading the same reports or waiting for the calendar to move. In Football Manager 26 the actual decisions come in short bursts, and the gaps between them make the whole thing drag.

Twenty minutes can disappear just shifting one slider and checking fitness levels, and I still don't know if that's worth calling it progress.
https://dfaceme.com/game/football-manager-26

Last night my cavalry broke through on the left flank and rolled up their whole line before the rifts even opened. That part landed clean.

The rest of the night was just waiting on the map while the AI kept spawning junk stacks that ignored every rule I had to follow. One of those wiped my best general on a retreat that should have been safe.

Total War: WARHAMMER III still can't decide if it wants fights to matter or just punish you for blinking at the wrong turn.
https://dfaceme.com/game/total-war-warhammer-iii

The opening hour with Grand Theft Auto V Enhanced had me checking how much time was left before anything felt worth it. Switching characters to line up the next job just repeated the same setup steps without much change.

What pulled me through was one stretch where I switched during a highway chase after a property meeting, trying to keep the timing right so the pursuit didn't reset. That kept me going for about twenty minutes, mostly adjusting routes and watching the distance markers.

Even so the slower parts still feel off. You spend too long crossing the map with nothing happening, and the refined controls only help once the action actually starts.